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from the trying-to-remember dept.
A joint bid by the U.S. company Broadcom Limited and the Japanese government may keep Toshiba's chip business out of the hands of China or South Korea:
A Japanese government-backed fund and policy bank are considering a joint bid with Broadcom Ltd for Toshiba Corp's semiconductor business, a move that would vault the U.S. chipmaker into the lead to buy the prized unit, the Asahi newspaper said on Wednesday.
A bid by Innovation Network Corp of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan with Broadcom would appear to be aimed at preventing Toshiba's chip technology from going to rivals in China or South Korea, the Asahi said, citing an unidentified source.
INCJ Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga said on Tuesday the fund was looking at the chip auction although it had not participated in the first round of bidding. People familiar with the matter have told Reuters INCJ might invest in the business as a minority partner - a move that would help the government prevent a sale to bidders it deems risky to national security.
Previously: Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Teasing QLC 3D NAND and TSV for More Layers
Toshiba Envisions a 100 TB QLC SSD in the "Near Future"
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs (WD is a bidder)
SK Hynix to Bid for Toshiba's Memory Business
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
Huge Nuclear Cost Overruns Push Toshiba's Westinghouse Into Bankruptcy
Toshiba Warns That its Survival is at Risk
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Toshiba and SanDisk have announced the development of a new 3D NAND product (called V-NAND by Samsung). It uses 48 layers of triple-level cell (TLC) NAND to store 256 Gb (32 GB) in a single die. It is expected to sample in September, and appear in solid-state drives and other products in the second half of 2016. However, the two companies will face plenty of competition. From Anandtech:
The new 3D NAND will face experienced competition from Samsung who are currently shipping 32-layer 3D NAND in capacities up to 128Gb for both MLC and TLC configurations. Samsung has also announced its third generation V-NAND which should be starting mass production in the latter half of this year. Meanwhile, Intel and Micron have stated that their 32-layer 3D NAND will be in mass production by the fourth quarter of this year in the form of a 256Gb MLC die and a 384Gb TLC die. SK Hynix is to begin mass production of a 36-layer 128Gb MLC die during the third quarter and is working toward a 48-layer TLC that will be available in 2016.
All of the major flash manufacturers have now publicized their plans for introducing 3D NAND. Planar NAND won't be disappearing overnight or even in a year, as it takes a lot of time and money to convert a fab to a new process. But from here on out, we can expect all the most interesting news about NAND flash memory to be about 3D.
After the big accounting scandal that came to light earlier this year, now they have announced ~7000 layoffs at Toshiba, mostly in Japan, but some worldwide.
This article says that the PC division will continue. Another source suggests that the PC division may be sold off. Anyone want to speculate about potential buyers?
The wide adoption of 3D/vertical NAND with increased feature sizes and endurance will apparently lead to the introduction of low-cost QLC (4 bits per cell) NAND. 3D NAND's increased flash cell size and overprovisioning will counteract the reduction in endurance caused by moving from 3 to 4 bits per cell:
We covered the TSV [Through Silicon Vias] notion here and now take a look at quadruple level cell (QLC) flash technology. Toshiba will present on this and TSVs in a keynote session at the August 6-9 Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara. The session abstract notes: "New technologies such as QLC (Quadruple Level Cell) BiCS FLASH offer high density, low-cost solutions, while TSV (Through Silicon Via) NAND offers high performance with significant power reduction."
To recap, BiCS stands for Bit Cost Scalable and is Toshiba and flash foundry partner WDC's approach to 3D NAND, the layering of ordinary or planer (2D) NAND chips atop each other. We have 48-layer cells in production and 64-layer ones coming with 96-layer and even 128-layer chips in prospect. Progress beyond 64-layers has problems due to the difficulties in etching holes through the layers and so the TSV idea is to have two layers of layering: two 64-layer chips one on top of the other, with holes through them both, TSVs, for wiring to hold them together and carry out cell activity functions as well.
[...] Back in March, Jeff Ohshima, a Toshiba executive, presented on TSVs and QLC flash at the Non-Volatile Memory Workshop and suggested 88TB QLC 3D NAND SSDs with a 500 write cycle life could be put into production. The Flash Memory Summit keynote could add more colour to this.
Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND
Toshiba Brings Through-Silicon Vias to NAND Flash
Western Digital, SanDisk, and the NAND Market
"String-Stacking" Being Developed to Enable 3D NAND With More Than 100 Layers (NAND devices with 64 layers and above will be difficult to create, so stacking 48-layer devices will be used to increase density)
Forget the 60 TB SSD. Toshiba is teasing a possible 100 TB SSD:
The Flash Memory Summit saw Toshiba deliver a presentation about quad level cell (QLC) technology – adding substantially to the prospect of a product being delivered in the "near future". We have heard about this QLC (4bits/cell NAND technology) quite recently.
After Seagate tantalised us with a 60TB SSD, along comes Toshiba with a 100TB QLC SSD concept.
Flash Memory Summit attendees saw Toshiba presenters put flesh on the bones and envisage a QLC 3D SSD with a PCIe gen 3 interface and more than 100TB of capacity. It would have 3GB/sec sequential read bandwidth and 1GB/sec sequential write bandwidth. It would do random reading and writing at 50,000 and 14,000 IOPS respectively. The active state power consumption would be 9 watts, the same as a 3.5-inch, 8TB SATA 6Gbit/s disk drive, while the idle power consumption be less than 100 mWatts, compared to the disk drive's 8 watts.
Even if the "near future" isn't so near, or the final capacity does not end up at around 100 TB, it is still interesting to see 3D NAND technology enabling a serious push for 4-bits-per-cell NAND, which would normally face endurance issues.
Toshiba is considering splitting its NAND business into a separate company and selling a stake in it to Western Digital or another investor:
In the recent months, Toshiba ran into a new accounting scandal that may require it to write down as much as 4 billion dollars because of cost overruns at its U.S. nuclear power business. The exact number has not been finalized, but the company is already studying various possibilities to offset the massive loss, which would anger its investors after the company already faced an accounting scandal in 2015. Nikkei reports that Toshiba is mulling to spin off its semiconductor business into a separate entity and then sell a 20% in the new company to someone like Western Digital for about $2.7 billion, while retaining 80% stake as well as operational control of the unit. Toshiba confirmed that it is studying the possibility of its memory business spin-off, but noted that no decision has been made and that the in-house NAND production is a focal business.
Toshiba and Western Digital already operate the world's largest NAND flash production complex in Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, Japan. Formally, the manufacturing facilities belong to joint ventures between the two companies and WD buys wafers from Toshiba. It is not completely clear how the spinoff would work in this case and which parts of Toshiba's business will be up for sale.
Also at Tom's Hardware.
Toshiba continues to look for a buyer for its memory business:
South Korea's SK Hynix Inc has entered the running for a stake in Toshiba Corp's memory chip business, seeing an opportunity to gain on rivals in the booming NAND market, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The world's No. 2 memory chip maker had submitted an initial bid, although the size of the stake it wanted to acquire had not been decided, the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the deal.
[...] Toshiba aims to raise more than 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) from the less-than 20 percent stake in its memory business, sources have said. The sale is part of a broader sell-off to cover multi-billion dollar writedowns stemming from its U.S. nuclear power unit.
A large majority of geeks are enamored with nuclear power -- it's very cool technology after all. The problem of course, is that a nuclear power plant is a complex piece of machinery and successfully building one to operate safely is a delicate task, a lesson Toshiba learned the hard way:
Those troubled projects in the American South are now threatening the Japanese icon's foundations. The value of Toshiba shares has been cut in half over the last six weeks, wiping out more than $7 billion in market value.
It appears a huge part of the problem stems from reliance on a pipe supplier. James Bernhard Jr. bought a pipe fabrication business ("Shaw") for $50k in a bankruptcy deal and then used his awesome dealmaking ability to parlay that into becoming Toshiba's plumber. Of course, in the modern world being a great businessman means sucking money down like a frat boy at a keg, and Bernhard went on to sell Shaw for $3.3 billion even while screwing up all the pipes (from TFA linked above):
After Westinghouse hired Shaw to handle construction in 2008, it wasn't long before the company's work came under scrutiny. By early 2012, NRC inspectors found steel in the foundation of one reactor had been installed improperly. A 300-ton reactor vessel nearly fell off a rail car. The wrong welds were used on nuclear modules and had to be redone. Shaw "clearly lacked experience in the nuclear power industry and was not prepared for the rigor and attention to detail required,'' Bill Jacobs, who had been selected as the state's monitor for the project, told the Georgia Public Service Commission in late 2012.
So there you have it. The reason some geeks (me for example) oppose nuclear power has nothing to do with the technology, and absolutely everything to do with the morons who run it. Businessmen being in charge of this technology means it will never achieve its potential and that it will always be dangerous, because by the time something goes wrong, they'll be spending their billions on hookers and blow in some remote private tropical island paradise, far far away from any consequences of any kind.
Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hit by billions of dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S. Southeast.
The bankruptcy casts doubt on the future of the first new U.S. nuclear power plants in three decades, which were scheduled to begin producing power as soon as this week, but are now years behind schedule.
The four reactors are part of two projects known as V.C. Summer in South Carolina, which is majority owned by SCANA Corp, and Vogtle in Georgia, which is owned by a group of utilities led by Southern Co.
Costs for the projects have soared due to increased safety demands by U.S. regulators, and also due to significantly higher-than-anticipated costs for labor, equipment and components.
Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse said it hopes to use bankruptcy to isolate and reorganize around its "very profitable" nuclear fuel and power plant servicing businesses from its money-losing construction operation.
Toshiba's Westinghouse problems have caused the company to sell off other assets:
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Shares Plunge Ahead of Nuclear Investment Writedown
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
Toshiba has reported another huge loss as it continues to try to recover from the bankruptcy of its Westinghouse nuclear unit:
Toshiba has filed its delayed financial results, warning that the company's survival is at risk. "There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a statement.
The electronics-to-construction giant reported a loss of 532bn yen (£3.8bn; $4.8bn) for April to December. However, the results have not been approved by the firm's auditors. These latest financial results have already been delayed twice and raise the possibility that Toshiba could be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Toshiba wants to sell off its memory business, but not to Western Digital (just yet):
Toshiba was hoping to complete a deal with the winning bidder at a shareholder meeting yesterday. In the weeks leading up to that meeting, Toshiba had to issue several reminders of how desperate their financial state is: disclosing new legal actions against them by investors seeking damages pertaining to Toshiba's accounting scandals, announcing that the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges are moving toward delisting Toshiba, and revising their outlook for fiscal year 2016 to reflect a negative shareholder equity of (¥581.6B). Meanwhile, Western Digital reiterated their objection to Toshiba selling the memory business to a third party and warned several third parties that they would view participation in the sale as tortious interference. Most recently, Western Digital also reportedly resubmitted its bid for Toshiba's memory business with an offer around ¥2 trillion, close to the amount offered by the consortium Toshiba had previously selected as the preferred bidder. Toshiba for their part has made no mention of Western Digital's offer.
In the aftermath of yesterday's shareholder meeting, Toshiba made several announcements. As expected, Toshiba was not able to finalize a sale of the Toshiba Memory Corporation subsidiary they have consolidated the memory-related assets under, but they are continuing to negotiate with the consortium. Toshiba announced plans for further investment in the joint venture's Fab 6 in Yokkaichi, Japan, and questioned whether SanDisk would jointly invest in the 3D NAND fab. Toshiba also announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Western Digital alleging unfair competition and seeking an injunction and damages. Toshiba claims that Western Digital is exaggerating their consent rights and also alleges that Western Digital has improperly obtained Toshiba trade secrets by transferring some employees from SanDisk to Western Digital whom have access to Toshiba confidential information through the joint ventures.
Western Digital Announces 96-Layer 3D NAND, Including Both TLC and QLC
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Broadcom and Japanese Government Considering Bid for Toshiba's Semiconductor Unit
Samsung Could Boost NAND Production Capacity, WD Intervenes in Toshiba Memory Sale


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On Saturday, the 90’s babies came out to play!
It was an evening of nostalgia as the most anticipated movie of the year; The Lion King was premiered at Imax Cinemas in Lekki,
The 90’s retro black carpet which was hosted by TV personality Folu Storms saw a gathering of celebrities, influencers, media personalities and movie lovers who came in their numbers.
Celebrities such ad Juliet Ibrahim, Kaffy, Efa Iwara, Ayoola, Moet Abebe, Leo Da SIlva, Femi Bakre, Uriel and a host of others were also on ground to showcase thier childhood memories dressed in the 90’s fashion and took pictures at our 90’s retro booth.
Before the screening, guests were treated to a delightful cocktail and finger foods.
Other locations were not left out as movie lovers came out enmasse at various filmhouse locations in Akure, Benin, portHarcourt, kano.
At the end of the screening, Group Head Marketing Dupe Olusola gave a short speech thanking everyone for coming out and reaffirmed that as Africa’s Global Bank, UBA will continue to support the progression of the culture and heritage of the African continent.
For more pictures; click the link https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156160493695653&id=86946405652

domain: news


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Another Ramazan of skyrocketing prices? Food will become even more expensive after finalization of Federal Budget
Consumers have become used to price hikers every Ramazan over the last many years. However, this year prices will reach unprecedented levels after the government presents the federal budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 on June 3rd, only a few days before the start of the month.
According to sources, the government has decided to increase Federal Excise Duty (FED) on imported food items, including many daily use items. FED on soft drinks are likely to hit 3.5 percent mark in the upcoming budget. Therefore, consumers will pay Rs. 8 to Rs. 10 per litre more to buy soft drinks during Ramazan.
On the other hand, FED on imported chicken, pineapples, cotton yarn, fabrics, artificial jewelry, frozen fish and other items are also likely to be increased from 10 percent to 11 percent.
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HomeFinder.com, one of the fastest growing real estate websites, announced that Shannon Cullins has joined the management team as the vice president of product management. Cullins brings more than 10 years of experience in digital, business strategy, account management and client service to the role.
According to the company, Cullins will spearhead the go-to-market strategy for HomeFinder.com’s new generation of innovative products providing unique online listing enhancement solutions for real estate professionals. With a focus on growing our Web and mobile footprint, Cullins and her team will play a critical role in expanding the product portfolio into new marketplaces, while continuing a principal commitment to customer service.
At her most recent role as vice president of product management at Viewpoints.com, Cullins established the product management discipline at the company; led development of the company’s first API and content widget for third party content distribution; directly impacted key performance drivers (PPV, RPMs); and helped lead a major site re-design to improve consumer usability and performance.
For more information, visit www.HomeFinder.com.


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According to Life & Style, one dude with less than loving intent went on the show for a single purpose: to promote his pants business. That’s right, JJ O’Brien, the guy who gifted Andi with a pair of outlandish pants, is supposedly one of this season’s big bads.
“He was on the show 100 percent to promote his business,” an insider tells Life & Style. “Soon everyone will know about his pants because he doesn’t shut up about them.”
We take this with a grain of salt, though in his intro video, the 30-year-old talked non-stop about his fashion line, Hem Haus. That being said, he also giddily told the cameras that he was “fully invested” in the Bachelorette experience.
Speaking about his business, the Stanford MBA said in the clip, “I do it by myself and I’d love to find somebody to actually share this experience with. I’ve been so career-oriented my whole life, and I now get to go see if there’s a connection with somebody awesome. I’m, like, fully invested in this experience and I’m excited. Like, I haven’t had this experience since I was a little kid.”
Welp, sounds like JJ was trying to put his best foot forward for the cameras — and given the fact that he is present in the promo for the season quite a bit, it looks like he might make it pretty far this year — so don’t be worried his so-called ulterior motives will be exposed this week.
Hopefully our courtroom gal can close the case on all the guys that aren’t there for the right reasons. Bye, losers!
Would you be surprised if JJ only went on the show to promote his business? Hit the comments and sound off!
The Bachelorette airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.


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LinkedIn set for Trading, Viadeo shelves IPO.
Posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Professional social networking giant LinkedIn is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange from Thursday. LinkedIn has 100 million users spread over 200 countries. It assists create business contacts, search for jobs and find potential clients.
LinkedIn is pricing its IPO of 7,840,000 shares at a price of $32 and $35 per share, raising $274 million in the offering. The response of the street to the offering is expected to be strong. The favorable factors for the company are its growing revenue. The company’s revenue of Q1 2011 was up by 110% to $39.3 million. And the net income was $2.08 million compared to $1.81 during the same quarter last year. The company’s hiring solutions mainly contributed to the increase. This is a paid offering, helping recruiters search for professionals. Whether LinkedIn can accelerate this revenue remains to be seen.
Chairman and co-founder Reid Hoffman is the largest shareholder of LinkedIn owning 21.4%.The other major shareholder are Sequoia Capital and Greylock
Earlier IPOs of the tech world this year have not done well. The Chinese social networking giant RenRen, which priced its IPO at $14 per share, slipped to below offer price son after trading began at NYSE.
While LinkedIn is preparing for its IPO, Reuters reports that that Viadeo, the world’s second-largest professional network, is putting off its IPO plans to focus on growing its core business


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There is some exciting news for fans of Young Rebel Star Prabhas and S.S. Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali’. The movie has recently celebrated its first anniversary of release and the shooting of the second part is going ahead with full speed.
Very soon, merchandise from the Baahubali franchise is reportedly entering the market. The team has always been quite creative in leveraging social media to its advantage and now this merchandise is also expected to be a big thing.
Games, Toys and collectibles are expected to come out first. The movie is being produced by Arka Mediaworks.
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But officials at Trend Micro say it's not that simple. "The case is about commercial Barracuda products, not about open source," a Trend Micro spokesperson said. "At issue in this patent infringement case is how certain Barracuda products implement anti-virus scanning at the Internet gateway. Panda is also a respondent in the ITC action and uses a proprietary scan engine, not ClamAV. Similarly, Fortinet did not use ClamAV and was found to have infringed the -600 patent [in 2005]. The application for the '600 patent was originally filed in 1995, before ClamAV was available.""If Trend Micro is successful in enforcing a patent against free and open-source software, that has tremendous ramifications on the entire open-source community with respect to the development of free and open-source software," Drako said. "The next step might be for other companies who have unjust or frivolous ... patents to start and try to collect royalties or past license fees from anyone using the open-source software." The ITC voted to investigate Trend Micro's claim last month. Officials at Trend Micro said the resolution of the case will not effect the development of open-source projects. "Open source is not at the heart of any issue in dispute, and we cannot see how this case will have a negative effect on open-source development," the Trend Micro spokesman said. "Our claim is that Barracuda is infringing a known and time-tested patent relating to a method of scanning for viruses at the Internet gateway/server of businesses. The ITC investigation is focused on how Barracuda implements certain functionality in certain of its products."
Drako claims Trend Micro wants to have exclusive control of gateway anti-virus scanning, and if the Tokyo-based security company is successful, it will restrict gateway scanning of FTP, HTTP and e-mail data and viruses. He said Trend Micro's patent is invalid due to prior art, and neither his company's products or ClamAV infringes it.


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Beijing accelerates adoption of Metaverse by including it in a development plan
The Beijing municipal government announced a two-year Metaverse innovation and development plan that focuses on promoting the development of Metaverse related industries and helping Beijing build a benchmark city for the digital economy.
The action plan requires that all districts build technological infrastructure at the urban level and promote its use in various fields, including education and tourism.
Tongzhou District, where the administration of the Beijing municipal government located, will lead the development plan. Previously, the sub center of Beijing has inked a partnership agreement with DAGAO International Art Zone to release a testing park for metaverse covering an area of 32,000 square meters.
The development program would use technology like augmented and virtual reality, 3D visualization and GIS (Geographic Information System) to build a visual urban space digital platform.
The announcement also highlighted Bejing’s plans to nurture metaverse intellectual property companies to enhance the industry’s ecosystem. Under the guidance, several districts would be required offer financial and human resource support to build a virtual reality.
Metaverse is a technology term originally from the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash by science fiction author Neal Stephenson. The term describes an all-encompassing virtual world where people can play, socialize and interact with one another by using avatars.
Over the past couple of months, two major cities in China have announced multi-year action plans with the Metaverse and NFTs in focus. Before Beijing, Shanghai also included the Metaverse in the five-year development plan, under which Shanghai city government pledged to develop a 350-billion-yuan (around $51 billion) metaverse industry by the end of 2025.
The rising interest of the Beijing towards leading Web3 technologies could lead to wider adoption in the country. Previously, The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology published a document that highlight the plan for developing a virtual human industry worth 50 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) in the next three years utilizing the Web3 technology.


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Mexican folk art store struggles to stay open during pandemic
Every day before welcoming customers to her shop, Dina Leor lights incense made from Copal resin in Mexico.
âI feel like it cleans up everything negative from yesterday and mostly brings good energy, which is what I love,â said Leor, who owns La Sirena, a folk art store. Mexican in the East Village for almost 22 years.
Leor’s shop on East 3rd Street is filled with colorful chotchkes, clothes and other items, all made by artisans from Mexico, a country she embraced when she traveled there as a young girl. with his mother. His mother is Argentinian, so Spanish was Leor’s mother tongue.
âWe spent a month and a half in the mountains of Mexico, she rented a house and I fell in love with the country, the culture and the people, and I kept going back,â said Leor, who also continued to buy folk art. of local artisans during his visits. Once a carpenter and then an art therapist, she decided to open a place where she could sell the wonderful objects she discovered during her travels.
âThe beauty of Mexican folk art is when you go to someone’s house and they create it on their patio and there’s a whole family there,â said Leor, who added that â it’s not like you go to school for it or you just learn it by living in your home, because it is passed down from generation to generation. “
Leor said that during the pandemic, artisans got really creative, making face masks with the designs of those famous “Lucha Libre” masks that Mexican wrestlers wear. She had to close the store for almost five months due to coronavirus restrictions and got away with online sales.
She’s catching up now, hoping she doesn’t have to go broke. Leor tries to stay positive and hopes she gets out of it.
âI’m always optimistic so I always go for yes, I think it’s a magical place,â said Leor, who says the store not only makes her happy but her customers too. It’s about keeping the store open and continuing to support the artisans with whom she has bonded during her long love affair with Mexico.


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EVGA, rightly considered one of NVIDIA’s oldest and leading partners, has decided to make some very serious changes. It will no longer do business with NVIDIA and will no longer release its graphics cards under its own brand. In other words, there will be no more GeForce RTX 40-series gaming graphics cards, as well as subsequent series from EVGA.
Leading tech bloggers JayZTwoCents and GamersNexus reported on the split between EVGA and NVIDIA. They spoke to EVGA CEO Andrew Han and discussed the issues that led to this decision. A note on this as well released Analysis agency Jon Peddie Research.
“We will no longer sit on your lap [главы NVIDIA] Jensen Huang, so I don’t want people speculating about what’s going on and why we’re gone. EVGA decided not to release the next generation [графических ускорителей GeForce]»– Tech blogger Steve Burke of YouTube channel GamersNexus quotes Khan as saying.
Significantly, Khan decided to meet up with two of the biggest and most popular tech bloggers and explain the situation to them. Incidentally, he even banned them until a certain point in time from publishing videos on their YouTube channels in which they explain the heart of the matter in their own words to an audience of millions. According to Burke, most of his team didn’t know what the video was about until the video was actually released. And JayZTwoCents initially assumed that when he met the head of EVGA, he could reveal exclusive news about the brand’s possible collaboration with AMD Radeon. EVGA is already partnering with AMD and releasing motherboards for them, so expanding the partnership further and starting production of Radeon graphics cards could be a logical step. However, much more shocking news awaited the blogger: EVGA decided to stop producing new graphics cards.
Portal Tom’s Hardware contacted NVIDIA representatives to comment on the situation.
“Over the years we have had an excellent partnership with EVGA. We will continue to support them with our current generation of products. We wish Andrew and our friends at EVGA all the best.”said Bryan Del Rizzo, director of global communications for GeForce at NVIDIA.
It is known that EVGA will continue to provide support for the GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards it has released until stocks of accelerators in the company’s warehouses are exhausted. The same information was confirmed on the official EVGA forum. The manufacturer does not plan to release AMD or Intel accelerators instead of NVIDIA graphics cards. He decided to focus on producing other products. Recall that in addition to graphics cards, the company has also produced and continues to produce motherboards, power supplies and various gaming peripherals. Additionally, EVGA has held back some inventory of its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics accelerators to allow for warranty replacements should current customers require it.
Speaking to JayZTwoCents and GamersNexus, Khan also revealed that he has no intention of selling EVGA. According to GamersNexus’ Steve Burke, EVGA informed NVIDIA management of its decision back in April of this year. Analysts from Jon Peddie Research write that NVIDIA received a notification in July. It looks like EVGA produced some GeForce RTX 40-series samples, but then development was halted.
Nothing is currently known about what will happen to the EVGA employees who have worked in the brand’s graphics department. EVGA itself is not a very big company. Speaking to GamersNexus, Khan promised to take care of the staff. However, it is not yet clear what exactly EVGA engineers will do after the graphics department is dissolved. According to Tom’s Hardware, EVGA’s Taiwan office laid off some employees this summer.
What led to the end of the partnership between EVGA and NVIDIA? A direct answer to this question is not given in either video. But there are indications that NVIDIA may have “strangled” EVGA’s graphics business. Jensen Huang’s company is sensitive to the disclosure of information about its future products, their equipment and recommended cost. NVIDIA’s paranoia reaches such a level that many of its partners, even such important partners as EVGA, receive all the information at the time of the official presentation of the new product, as JayZTwoCents says in his video. With this approach, it is very difficult for NVIDIA partners to create their business plans.
Another reason could be that NVIDIA literally started to compete with its partners by selling reference versions of GeForce RTX 30 series graphics accelerators in Founders Edition. Previously, NVIDIA sold reference versions of its graphics cards only in the first few months after the launch of a new generation of accelerators. At this point, the company’s partners ramped up production, and then NVIDIA removed the Founders Edition versions from store shelves. Things were different with the GeForce RTX 3000 series. The company sells reference versions of accelerators throughout their lifecycle while aggressively pricing them.
If we look at NVIDIA as a manufacturer and supplier of graphics cards, then unlike its partners, it does not have to worry much about the level of profit from the actual sale of accelerators. The main profit brings her the sale of graphics processors. At the same time, in a conversation with JayZTwoCents, the EVGA boss mentioned that even at a price of $1,400, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti card is sold at a loss.
In its 23 years of existence, EVGA has dedicated 22 of those years to an exclusive partnership with NVIDIA, earning a reputation as the maker of some of the most powerful GeForce accelerators. The very name of the company stands for Extreme Video Graphics Adapter. Now the presence of the abbreviation VGA in it looks strange, since the company no longer produces video cards. According to Jon Peddie Research, EVGA’s solution “will cause a huge hole in NVIDIA graphics card sales in North America”, as it accounts for 40% of the GeForce accelerator supply. Even fans of the brand from Western Europe will not be happy about such news.


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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
The Evening Standard is pitting Vogue against Net-a-Porter after the London-based online retailer released its own print publication Porter last week. They're evidence includes a chilly quote from Nicholas Coleridge, president of Vogue publisher Condé Nast International, describing Porter as "pretty," "safe," and "feels like a delightful contract magazine." Also Vogue's recent UK ad campaign, which includes the giant 118-foot-wide "digital poster" at the Holland Park roundabout. That one is damning because it's right outside Net-a-Porters Westfield HQ, acting like a giant, illuminated middle finger.
While Porter editor Lucy Yeomen says they're not going after Vogue and other high-end print mags, but rather that she, "hope[s] Porter will take its place alongside those sisters," Net-a-Porter did poach Condé Nast and Hearst staff to build a team of 50. And, there's also the tiny detail that Net-a-Porter is coming at its readers from the perspective of a retailer, so while Yeomen might argue the glossy has "editorial integrity," they have a head start on the service aspect (read: consumers can—and even expect to—consume immediately with their phones at Net-a-Porter). Condé is still trying to work that out with its titles.
· Net-A-Porter's Glossy Mag Is Raising Hackles at Vogue [Evening Standard]
· Glamour Magazine and AHALife Want You to Shop by Phone [Racked]
· Editorialist and Net-A-Porter's Print Magazines Have Arrived [Racked]


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Now even weddings can be finger lickin’ good! In a recent press release, KFC Australia announces that it will plan and pay for the weddings of six couples. According to the New York Post, the wedding will consist of official Kentucky Fried Chicken food trucks, KFC sponsored officiants, and officially branded merchandise and performers to make it the most memorable wedding possible. The only thing that seemed to be missing from the press release was the drinks. KFC won’t provide adult beverages to the wedding guests, so guests will have to solve that problem on their own. With a massive corporation taking care of the costs and logistics, only having to plan the drink selection would be a dream.
In order to be eligible, there are a few requirements for the lucky couples. Each couple must be located in Australia and have a wedding date planned between November 2019 and May 2020. They must also write a 200-word essay on why it has always been the couples’ dream to have a KFC-themed wedding.
In this one-of-a-kind press release, Nikki Lawson, the managing director at KFC Australia, notes how, “Over the years we’ve seen some amazing Facebook comments and have heard of some incredible proposals from fans taking place in our restaurants in Australia and around the world.” It seems like the fans demanded it, so KFC will officially support their passions for marriage and fried chicken.
If this campaign goes smoothly over the next several months, KFC Australia’s efforts could spread to other countries, cementing fried chicken as a long-lasting symbol of marriage. Pretty soon, brides will throw a bouquet of fried chicken into the crowd of singles instead or those overused traditional flowers.


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By popular demand HireHop have released another new feature for their rental management software, being embedded stock categories, giving users the ability to organise categories into sub categories, just like folders on your computer.
Users can now sort their categories into sub-categories, and even have sub-categories of sub-categories, with the ability to go as deep as you need.
Moving the categories is easy, just double click on one to edit it and select the new category from the drop down, or simply drag and drop the category to the position you want it.
In the main Rental Stock, Labour or Consumables (Sales stock) front tab, by selecting a category, all stock inside that category and its descendants will now be listed, with the ability to expand or refine the list by using the breadcrumbs for each item;
We currently have many more exciting and amazing features currently undergoing beta testing that will soon be available to all users, so remember to subscribe to our Facebook page or Twitter feed to be notified about all future improvements and additions.


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MMTC-PAMP appoints Anika Agarwal as President – Consumer Business
MMTC-PAMP, a top London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) accredited goods delivery refinery for gold and silver, has appointed Anika Agarwal as president – consumer business. Anika would be responsible for building and delivering the strategy to build MMTC PAMP’s brand and footprint across India.
She will report to Vikas Singh, managing director, and CEO, MMTC-PAMP.
Vikas Singh, managing director & CEO, MMTC-PAMP said, “We are pleased to welcome Anika Agarwal to our versatile and high-performing team. Anika brings in-depth knowledge of consumer-centric businesses coupled with the comprehension of how new digital technologies disrupt industries. MMTC-PAMP is rapidly evolving in building a consumer-centric portfolio, and Anika’s immense experience will anchor our journey.”
With two decades of experience, Agarwal is a seasoned sales and marketing leader with deep experience across diverse and competitive industries like retail, telecom, and Insurance.
On her appointment, Anika stated, “India is one of the largest markets for gold and the precious metal has a central role in the country’s culture. I look forward to deepening MMTC-PAMP’s retail and digital presence to build a strong omnichannel consumer business and create a preferred brand in the mostly unorganised precious metals market in India.”
Before MMTC-PAMP, Anika worked with Max Bupa Health Insurance where she held several leadership roles in the last decade within marketing, digital transformation, direct and digital sales functions. Prior to Max Bupa, Anika spent almost 7 years with Nokia Corporation in India, Middle East, and Africa.


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Amazon, the online retail giant, which started as a simple place to buy books online is turning 20. To celebrate, Amazon is launching a one-day sale it’s calling Prime Day — and for the past week Amazon has been advertising the mega deal as an event that will be larger than previous “Black Friday” sales.
The catch? You need to be an Amazon Prime member. Which, although is not a free membership, it includes free two-day shipping, free streaming video content, free music, eBook lending, and a lot more.
All of the deals start for Prime members at midnight Pacific Time. Have fun, and let us know what cool deals on tech gadgets you’re able to find in the comments below!


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Giant Companies worldwide are joining hands together against pausing Facebook Ads. Why suddenly facebook ads were stopped? Should you too be stoping your Ads?
Facebook is a giant social media company exploring new technology every day. Facebook is constantly developing different web technology. It is obviously the top scorer in social media. Facebook is extensively for running marketing campaigns by all sorts of companies.
Facebook is free for every user. Nothing is free eventually. Facebook was constantly investing in its brand value by engaging users from different groups. The social benefits provided by Facebook can’t be ignored either.
The huge sum of Facebook revenue is generated by Facebook Ads until different companies worldwide decided to pause the paid promotion campaigns.
The stock price of Facebook declined last week as the top companies marketing on Facebook decided to pause Facebook Ads.
Early reports show $7 billion losses.
What suddenly stirred the flow of pausing the Facebook ads?
Facebook was accused of promoting hate speech. It all started when Facebook decided to mediate the contents on its platforms. It began to filter out harmful and misleading content.
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg even stated to stop advertising containing specific race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, sexual orientation as he considers it a threat to others.
This statement from Facebook forced the large company to withdraw its ads campaigns as the response to hate speech.
The New York Times writes, “Mark’s complicated relation with president Trump is the center of controversy. ”
Who has joined the game?
Starbucks has recently made clear that they will stop promoting on social media starting from pausing Facebook ads. Starbucks alone spent $95 million on promotion last year. Coca-cola, Diageo, Unilever have already paused the Facebook Ads.
Starbucks has also made it clear, they will continue publishing ads on Youtube- A Google Company.
Mark has always been criticized for making rational decisions for the company benefits neglecting moral values.
Should you too join the “Pausing Facebook Ads” campaign?
The answer varies with the scalability of your company. The companies who have joined the campaign are clearly the big names in the world economy. They have but very less impact on their business by the promotion. They have already established their brands. These are the large scale company we are talking about.
If your company is a small-scale enterprise and your company sales largely depend on Paid promotion then, it wouldn’t be that wise to pause your promotion.
Social media utilized by various strategies can enhance your brand value and business as well. It can be crucial for many startups companies who are considering to run their business on the online platform rather than establishing the physical outlets.
Do what suits you best, don’t just simply run behind someone who is already way ahead of you in both brand values and sales.
Will this ban on Facebook ads, affect its revenue. Will you also be joining the Ban? Share your thoughts on pausing Facebook Ads campaign by commenting below.


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One In Three Used Lazada Wallet
Leo Chow, CEO, Lazada Malaysia
E-commerce transactions for essentials picked up significantly during the MCO. Leo Chow, CEO of Lazada Malaysia and former executive from Taobao discusses plans to maintain Lazada's lead as the biggest e-commerce platform operator ahead of Shopee.
Produced by: Sim Wie Boon
Presented by: Noelle Lim
Download the BFM mobile app. Stay at home and stay up-to-date.


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Amazon said it is bringing a new level of delivery convenience and predictability to Prime members with the launch of Amazon Day, available to all Prime members in the U.S.
The new delivery service enables Prime members to choose a day of the week to be their delivery day, which makes it easier to get purchases grouped and delivered together and, in many cases, in fewer packages. Members can also choose from Prime’s fast, free shipping options for any item they don’t want to include as part of their Amazon Day shipment.
The program is one of many sustainability initiatives to help achieve Shipment Zero, the company’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50% of all shipments net zero by 2030.
“Amazon Day adds another level of convenience to the many shipping benefits Prime members already enjoy. Prime members can now choose to get their orders delivered together in fewer boxes whenever possible on the day that works best for them,” said Maria Renz, vp/delivery experience at Amazon. “We’ve been testing this program with a group of Prime members and Amazon Day has already reduced packaging by tens of thousands of boxes— a number that will only continue to grow now that the program is available to Prime members nationwide.”


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McDonald's breaks Mighty Angus campaign
McDonald's Canada has released a new television commercial promoting its Mighty Angus burger. The 30-second ad depicts a group of cowboys in Alberta being pulled on skis behind horses through a race course. The campaign, developed by Cossette, also includes 15-second online video pre-roll ads and a 360-degree YouTube video. According to the company, this is the first time a Canadian brand has used this technology, which allows viewers to choose various camera angles within the video, in an advertising unit. The ads are a follow-up to the launch campaign in August, which featured the same cowboys at the Calgary Stampede. Media buying was conducted by OMD.


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CD Projekt Red has opened a new studio in Krakow, Poland to aid development of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077.
CD Projekt Red's new Krakow studio was first announced in May. At that time, a representative from the company confirmed that the studio had a founding team of 20 people, and that it would also be developing one of two, "smaller but top quality titles...that will support one of our product lines."
"A new studio, new people and new energy - we're growing and we're extremely excited that we can tap into the potential that Cracow has to offer," said Adam Badowski, head of CD Projekt Red, in a statement issued today.
"We want to continue to make better and better RPGs and the new studio is another big step in that direction. Cracow, one of the cultural and scientific centers of Europe, is a really special place that will leave a significant mark on our games."


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tech2 News StaffAug 02, 2018 14:17:49 IST
A while ago, Google decided to sort its all-scattered music ecosystem a bit, and turn Google Play Music into YouTube Music. While these plans are still in a nascent stage, a new report lists a number of features that could be coming to YouTube Music to make it stand out from the regular YouTube app.
According to a report by Engadget, Google will be adding support for SD card, new album sort options, quality selection, among other features to YouTube Music.
Now, why do you need the support for SD card with the platform? Quality options are important for those with limited storage or data plans, and limited storage applies in the case of SD cards as well. And with the reported update, users will have the flexibility to choose according to their need, instead of a default setting.
The report also suggests that the SD card support has already started to roll out, while quality options feature will be out in the coming weeks.
Additionally, up till now, “recently added” was the only way to sort an album, but the update will also bring you options to sort in more categories.
Other than this, there are also some additions, which we already see on the primary YouTube app. For instance, as of now when you follow an artist from within YouTube Music app, you are automatically subscribed to the particular artist. However, XDA Developer reports Elias Roman, a product manager for YouTube Music saying, that the upcoming update will allow users to fix that with the introduction of a new drop down to filter for followed artists.
Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.


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Video: AMD and Microsoft join forces to block Spectre attacks.
Microsoft has released new Windows updates that include Intel hardware fixes to address the Spectre variant 2 CPU flaw.
Microsoft this week published on the Microsoft Update Catalog KB4078407 and KB4091666, respectively a software update for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, and an update targeting Intel machines that includes the chip-maker's microcode updates.
The two updates address Spectre Variant 2 CVE-2017-5715, known as a branch target injection vulnerability disclosed by Google researchers in January.
Of all three variants that constitute Meltdown and Spectre, variant 2, which affects Intel and AMD chips, has been the most problematic.
Intel halted the rollout of its initial microcode updates after it was found they caused unexpected reboots. Intel last month completed re-releasing microcode mitigations for the Spectre variant 2 flaw in all CPUs ever released over the past nine years.
While hardware manufacturers were meant to release Intel's updates, Microsoft in March began releasing them, starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, version 1709, on devices with specific 6th Generation Intel Core and Core m processors: Skylake H/S (CPUID 506E3) and Skylake U/Y and U23e (CPUID 406E3).
See more: IT pro's guide to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (free PDF)
Microsoft recommends users check with their device manufacturer before installing KB4078407.
The KB4091666 Windows Update brings Intel's microcode updates to more families of Intel CPUs than the initial March update KB4090007. The newer update covers Intel Core, Pentium, Celeron, and Xeon processors from Skylake, Broadwell, and Haswell CPUs.
"We will offer additional microcode updates from Intel thru this KB Article for these operating systems as they become available to Microsoft," Microsoft noted in a support document.
Microsoft has also released a new KB4090007 package for the Fall Creators Update with Intel's hardware updates for more Skylake, Broadwell, and Haswell CPUs.
Windows 10 on AMD? This new update plus Microsoft's patch block Spectre attacks
AMD has released microcode updates for Spectre variant 2 that require Microsoft's latest Windows 10 patch.
Intel: We now won't ever patch Spectre variant 2 flaw in these chipsA handful of CPU families that Intel was due to patch will now forever remain vulnerable.
Windows 7 Meltdown patch opens worse vulnerability: Install March updates nowMicrosoft's Meltdown fix opened a gaping hole in Windows 7 security, warns researcher.
Intel's new Spectre fix: Skylake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake chips get stable microcodeIntel makes progress on reissuing stable microcode updates against the Spectre attack.
Got an old PC? Find out whether you will get Intel's latest Spectre patch (TechRepublic) Intel has listed a range of CPUs released between 2007 and 2011 that will not receive a firmware update to help guard against Spectre-related exploits.
Class-action suits over Intel Spectre, Meltdown flaws surge (CNET) Since the beginning of 2018, the number of cases has risen from three to 32.


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The new move by Paytm will empower users to benefit from interoperability across all UPI-based payment apps, ensuring a superfast and seamless payment experience.
Twitter Blue is an optional, monthly subscription service that costs $7.99 and gives users early access to a few new features, such as Edit Tweet along with a blue checkmark.
You can add up to 12 options using WhatsApp Poll feature.
You can now make your iPhone 14 Pro's AOD even more minimalistic.
UPI autopay is a feature that was launched more recently, but offers the convenience of card-based recurring payments.
OPPO phones get 5G support in India.
The latest OxygenOS 13 update for the OnePlus 8 series brings the Android 13 goodness, a new AOD experience, seamless earphone connectivity, and more.
The Safari bug was seemingly applicable for specific regions, and made the browser crash to certain terms.
The company claims that VLC Player used to receive around 25 million downloads every year in India.
Samsung Galaxy A53 is getting the stable One UI 5.0 software update a full month ahead of its scheduled December 2022 rollout. Read on to know more.
Twitter Blue with verification tick subscription will cost you Rs 719 in India, but it is only available to iOS users for now.
YouTube followed TikTok into the short-video space two years ago, and it is also trailing TikTok in the connected-TV realm.
Selected Twitter handles of governments, companies, publishers and some public figures will get a second 'Official' checkmark on top of the regular blue tick.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9200 is definitely a powerhouse.
Twitter verified users can no longer change their display names.
ColorOS 13 includes new features for smart multi-device connection to enhance productivity with intelligent experiences.
OnePlus is rolling out a firmware update for OnePlus Nord 5G and OnePlus Nord CE in India.
Twitter will now permanently suspend accounts which are found impersonating someone without disclosing that they are a parody/fanpage account.
Twitter Blue tick subscription service will launch in India in less than a month, Elon Musk has confirmed.
BYJU'S announced Lionel Messi as the first global brand ambassador for its social campaign "Education For All"The edtech firm believes Messi will be an...
While two apps have around 1,000 downloads on the Google Play Store, the remaining three have more than 100,000 downloads each. Alarming!
Brace yourself, the edit feature is coming to Twitter.
Here's who can get Spotify Premium subscription.
Meta does not seem to be having good days. After WhatsApp, Instagram was struck!
The list of WhatsApp features coming soon includes the ability to chat with yourself, a profile photo for groups, media auto-download on desktop, new blur tools, and others.


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(Bloomberg) -- Saks, newly minted as a standalone e-commerce business that’s separate from the Saks Fifth Avenue department stores, is adding NBA star James Harden to its board.
Harden, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets and has led the league in scoring three times, is also making a minority investment in Saks. His business portfolio spans several consumer categories, including products with BodyArmor drinks, Stance socks and Pura fragrances. He also has a sneaker and apparel line with Adidas.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with James talking about fashion,” said Saks Executive Chairman Richard Baker in an interview. “It’s good to have board members and ownership that are focused and motivated to grow the business.”
Saks Fifth Avenue, owned by Canadian department-store operator Hudson’s Bay Co., moved to spin off the e-commerce arm of its business into a separate entity earlier this year. Private equity firm Insight Partners invested $500 million in Saks, with the company valued at $2 billion. Saks later added more financing for its plans with a $350 million revolving credit facility and a $115 million secured term loan.
Three others will join the Saks board alongside Harden: Deven Parekh and Adam Berger of Insight Partners and Franz-Ferdinand Buerstedde of Rhone Capital. That puts the new board at seven members, all men, though the company plans to add more names and is now in discussions with other candidates.
Baker said Saks is investing in its digital capabilities and expanding its product assortment across categories, from women’s handbags to men’s clothing, to fuel growth.
Luxury retailers are jockeying for position as online shopping for high-end goods gains popularity. In this landscape, Saks is competing with the likes of Farfetch, Mytheresa and Moda Operandi. Global sales of personal luxury goods, which screeched to a halt due to the pandemic, are expected to return to 2019 levels by the end of 2022, according to Bain & Co.
Saks Chief Executive Officer Marc Metrick told employees in a memo Monday that the retailer is assembling its board to make sure it represents “a variety of perspectives and experiences.” The company said in a statement that Harden “brings expertise in helping to grow high-potential consumer brands combined with a unique perspective as a notable fashion enthusiast.”
Harden also has minority stakes in Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo and the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.


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BMW has been teasing people with their latest X2 by parading it through the streets either camouflaged or having some weird wrap around it. Before it’s launch tomorrow, the Koreans let slip some photos of the new BMW X2.
BMW Blog explains that the leaked images showcase the BMW X2 in the new Misano Blue colour and with the M Sport configuration which stands out with the large diffuser insert in the rear apron and the front apron in a Dark Shadow metallic finish. BMW has made the X2 sportier, more aggressive and more stylish than the X1. It’s immediately recognizable from its sibling, thanks to a lower ride height, wider stance and a roof which is more aggressively raked.
Interestingly the kidney grills feel like it is upside down and at certain angles, the front bumper looks either very sharp and nice or a little bent out of shape. Also from the images, what seems to be the fog light is now located much higher and closer to the main head lights.
Inside the car, it looks like any typical BMW with the standard design cues so there isn’t anything really to shout about now. We shall wait for the official release and launch tomorrow by BMW.


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27 September 2022
A senior Chinese commerce ministry official said a weakening global economy remains the "biggest uncertainty" for China's foreign trade in the second half of this year.
But, he added he is confident foreign trade would achieve positive growth in the second half of this year, and that it would contribute to the recovery of China's economy that has been hit by stringent COVID-19 measures and repeated closures of cities to fight virus outbreaks.
China's export growth weakened in August and imports shrank as high energy prices, inflation and anti-virus restrictions weighed on global and Chinese consumer demand. Growth in China has also been hit and is expected to drop to a projected 3.2% in 2022. Except the 2020 pandemic, this will be the lowest growth rate in China since the 1970s.
-- End --


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[UPDATE 5 October 13, 2013:. A hacker by the name of “Jason” posted images of card templates for the yet to be released League of Legends: Supremacy digital card game.]
[UPDATE 4 October 13, 2013:. Marc Merrill’s Twitter account has been breached, and information about a Supremacy card game has been leaked.]
[UPDATE 3 June 15, 2012:. The identity of Supremacy.com’s owner is no longer a secret. The Whois privacy on the name has been removed, showing the name “Riot Games, Inc.” as the registered owner. Details: LoL big announcement soon? Riot now reveals itself as owner of Supremacy.com.]
[UPDATE 2 May 27, 2012:. Riot Games filed a trademark application on May 22, 2012, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for “League of Legends: Supremacy”.Details: Riot Games makes it official, trademarks League of Legends: Supremacy.]
[UPDATE 1 May 19, 2012:. Despite all the best efforts of MarkMonitor, a company that prides itself on protecting the brands of the world’s leading companies, it failed to add Whois privacy to leagueoflegendssupremacy.org. Details: Proof that Riot Games is behind the League of Legends Supremacy domain name registrations.]
ORIGINAL STORY: Domain names can often be a good indicator of a company’s plans. And based on the large of amount of domain registrations and acquisitions recently, it looks like Riot Games is preparing to release a brand new game mode for League of Legends called Supremacy.
Back in late February, another domain blog Rogue Domaining had noted that leagueoflegendssupremacy.com and .net had been privately registered by the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. While registering two domains may signal nothing more than a company trying to protect its intellectual property, I’ve discovered additional strong hints that Riot Games will be introducing League of Legends: Supremacy in the near future.
First off, Riot Games is a client of MarkMonitor, a firm that over half the fortune 100 rely on for brand protection online. While the key is to be discreet when registering names for yet-to-be-released games, months ahead of its Dominion game mode release, MarkMonitor registered names like leagueoflegendsdominion.com (Whois).
This week, MarkMonitor registered a slew of typos of League of Legends: Supremacy domains including:
Now add to that, Riot Games has apparently acquired the generic domain names Supremacy.com (Whois) and Supremacy.net (Whois), which you can most certainly assume did not go for cheap, dropping hints that League of Legends: Supremacy is definitely on its way. You don’t spend the kind of money it takes to buy generic names like these for defensive purposes unless you have a plan.
Days ago, both names transferred from their previous owner to MarkMonitor. The tie-in between Supremacy.com and the other League of Legends names, is that on the same day MarkMonitor registered the typos of leagueoflegends.com and lolsupremacy.com, it also picked up typos of supremacy.com like supramecy.net, supremecy.net, supremicy.com, and supremicy.net.
While nothing is official yet, with all these new domain registrations revealed here in the past week, news of a new game mode seems very close.


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Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Air Conditioning Systems - Global Strategic Business Report" report to their offering. This... ...http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=165024
DUBLIN , Apr. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3x8q76/air_conditioning) has announced... ...http://in.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=66450289
Comments SHENZHEN, China, April 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ZJNAC, one of the most welcomed and honored exhibitors of the semi-annual Canton Fair,... ...http://www.andhranews.net/Intl/Web/59-55.asp
NEW DELHI: PE Electronics, the license holder of Philips brand of TVs in India is aiming to have 10 per cent market share in the segment by 2016... ...http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/electronics/philips-india-aims-at-10-per-cent-marketshare/articleshow/46931983.cms
PE Electronics, the license holder of Philips brand of television sets in India is aiming to have 10 per cent market share in the segment by 2016... ...http://wap.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/pe-electronics-eyes-10-in-tv-mkt-with-philips-brand-by-2016-115041500550_1.html
Electrolux products include...


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You don’t usually hear companies advocate for more regulation, but Stephen Segebarth is convinced that’s what it will take to improve sustainable practices in the glass manufacturing business. Segebarth was one of several corporate experts who came to Krannert Oct. 5 to share information and insights during the Fall Operations Conference on Sustainability.
Industry leaders, faculty and students discussed challenges and opportunities for businesses when it comes to improving sustainability in supply chains. The conference was hosted by the Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises and the Global Supply Chain Management Initiative at Purdue University.
Segebarth discussed the unique challenges of glass bottle manufacturing and the importance of recycling to sustainability. Seventy percent of glass that is currently recycled and used to make new bottles comes from just 10 states that all have bottle-bill legislation, according to Segebarth, senior vice president for government relations, regulatory affairs and law at Verallia North America. “That’s why I’m out advocating for bottle-bill legislation,” he says.
The legislation calls for a deposit on glass, metal or plastic bottles, which is returned when the consumer brings the bottle back for recycling. Currently about 3 billion glass, aluminum and plastic containers go to landfills each year at a cost of $60 million. “We are the market for recycled feedstock. We will buy all we can get. We can’t get enough.”
When 10 percent recycled glass is used in the manufacturing process, energy usage drops two to three percent and emissions are reduced. The key to sustainability and competitiveness for glass manufacturers is collecting glass for recycling and making sure it gets back into the manufacturing cycle.
“American citizens have bought into the idea of recycling. Our problem, for the most part, is the lack of infrastructure for dealing with recycling,” Segebarth says. “My view it bottle bills can provide the foundation and funding.”
Although recycling may be the answer for the glass industry, Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. has found that eliminating waste and avoiding disposal issues altogether works better in vehicle manufacturing.
Located in Lafayette, Indiana, SIA is a zero landfill automobile manufacturer, the first automotive assembly plant to receive that designation. Nothing from the manufacturing process is sent to a landfill. “If you had a cup of coffee this morning and threw that cup away, you’ve already put more into the landfill today than our entire facility,” says Tom Easterday, executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for SIA, Inc.
“Recycling is not very cost effective,” Easterday explains. “If you don’t create the waste in the first place, you don’t have to worry about disposing of it and the energy associated with disposing of it.” SIA’s top two strategies for eliminating waste involve associate ideas and suppliers willing to make adjustments.
Using the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, which focuses on continuous improvement, SIA solicits ideas from all employees and changes procedures based on those suggestions to reduce waste and conserve energy. “We want to make sure we continue to reduce the waste we put into the land and the air and the water,” he says.
Using suppliers that are located within a two-hour delivery radius, SIA also asks its suppliers to eliminate unnecessary packaging and invest in plastic containers rather than cardboard, so containers can be sent back on return trips and re-used several times. It not only reduces the amount of materials being recycled, but also generates a long-term cost savings.
Cost savings and conservation can go hand in hand. John Deere, a leader in agriculture equipment, sees efficient water management as a key sustainability issue when it comes to growing crops to feed the world.
Seventy percent of the world’s freshwater withdrawals are used by agriculture, according to Sharlin Barfield, manager of environmental compliance – supply management at John Deere World Headquarters and a proud Purdue graduate. Using new irrigation technologies, John Deere hopes to reduce freshwater usage by 30-60 percent.
Using suppliers who comply with labor and human rights regulations is also a key factor impacting profit and sustainability for John Deere. “We have to have oversight of our supply chain. We have to manage our supply chain,” Barfield says.
To ensure that suppliers are meeting regulations, John Deere has a compliance hotline where possible violations can be reported. “Communicating is key. After we communicated this in 2009, a lot of people began using the system,” Barfield says.In addition to Verallia, SIA, and John Deere, other companies presenting at the conference included 5 Kingdoms Development, LLC; WALCO Tool & Engineering; ArcelorMittal Americas; ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor, General Motors and Caterpillar.


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Being in the car puts a barrier between you and the outside world, but germs and bugs can still slip in through the air. Jaguar Land Rover wants to kill them off before they can even get to the cabin. The company put forward a concept that would use ventilation systems to neutralize superbugs and pathogens that cause infections like the flu and the common cold.
The idea put forth by Jaguar Land Rover would equip future vehicles with ultraviolet light technology (UV-C). It’s the same kind that has been used by the medical community for more than 70 years. UV-C is utilized to disinfect water by filtering air and sterilizing surfaces. It uses wavelengths of light between 200 and 280 nanometers to accomplish this, which disrupts the DNA of different pathogens and leaves them unable to perform their most basic cellular functions.
Jaguar Land Rover wants to install that UV-C technology into the air conditioning systems in its vehicles. By doing so, the cars could potentially neutralize pathogens from the outside world as they enter the car and kill them off before they ever reach the cabin. That not only leaves the people inside the car with cleaner air to breathe, but it also could help to kill off drug-resistant superbugs that would otherwise spread through the air. Some studies suggest UV-C can cut the transmission of four different superbugs by up to 30 percent.
“The average motorist spends as much as 300 hours per year behind the wheel. There is a clear opportunity to better utilize cars for administering preventative healthcare,” Dr. Steve Iley, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Medical Officer, said in a statement. “The implementation of individual wellbeing measures as part of our ‘tranquil sanctuary’ research promises to not only improve quality of life for our customers but in this case, offers clear advantages in reducing pathogen spread — protecting the overall population from the threat of disease; particularly as we move towards shared mobility solutions.”
According to Jaguar Land Rover, it is already using pathogen-neutralizing technology in some of its latest Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, including those found in the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE and Range Rover Sport. However, the UV-C system could prove to be even more effective and have a bigger impact on killing off the germs that spread things like the cold and flu.
- Check out this interactive simulator for upcoming Mars rover landing
- Land Rover Defender could become a life-size remote-control car
- Redesigned Land Rover Defender is positively teeming with new tech
- BlackBerry will provide cybersecurity for future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles
- Jaguar Land Rover is developing this amazing 3D head-up display


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Emerging markets-focused bitcoin services provider BitX has launched services in Nigeria.
A fork in the bitcoin network has raised issues regarding how key participants in the payment network process and confirm transactions.
CoinDesk reviews Reveal, a new mobile social network with a built-in cryptocurrency that seeks to create an economy for attention.
KPCB Edge partner Anjney Midha explains why his new $4m seed-stage investment firm is bullish on the bitcoin blockchain.
Brazilian Congressman Manoel Junior has proposed a public hearing to discuss the potential regulation of bitcoin and the blockchain.
Romanian mobile payments provider Netopia mobilPay is now backing a proposal to leverage microSD cards to conduct offline bitcoin transactions.
BitGo has announced the release of Verified by BitGo, a tool aimed at allowing customers to provide greater financial transparency.
Kraken has become the latest US-based bitcoin exchange to launch services in the Canadian market.
Bitso has closed a seed funding round led by the Barry Silbert-backed investment fund Bitcoin Opportunity Corp.
CoinDesk speaks to ex-Coinbase CCO Martine Niejadlik regarding the state of compliance and regulation in the digital currency industry.


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MAPLEWOOD, Minn. – One of Minnesota's largest employers announced that they intend to cut about 2,500 jobs in the near future.
The news comes following the announcement of fourth-quarter and full-year results, and with a look ahead to the 2023 financial outlook. Shares fell 4.7% before the market open.
"We posted organic growth of 0.4 percent -- versus our expectation of 1 to 3 percent -- adjusted margins of 19.1 percent, and adjusted earnings of $2.28 per share. The slower-than-expected growth was due to rapid declines in consumer-facing markets," 3M chairman and CEO Mike Roman said. "Our focus is executing the actions we initiated in 2022 and delivering the best performance for customers and shareholders. Based on what we see in our end markets, we will reduce approximately 2,500 global manufacturing roles – a necessary decision to align with adjusted production volumes."
3M Co. also reported fourth-quarter earnings of $541 million, or 98 cents per share. Its adjusted profit was $2.28 per share. That's below the $2.34 per share that analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research predicted.
3M's full-year expectations for 2023 were reported to include a sales growth adjustment of -6% to -2%.
Last month, 3M announced that the company would stop the manufacturing and use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances -- also known as "forever chemicals" -- by the end of 2025. That development was also mentioned in the company's year-end report. The so-called forever chemicals are used in nonstick frying pans, water-repellent sports gear, stain-resistant rugs, cosmetics and countless other consumer products.
, Bloomberg reported 3M announced future layoffs in an internal memo. The Maplewood-based company, at the time of the news, told WCCO it was "adjusting" to the slowing economy.
3M employs approximately 100,000 persons. It was not immediately clear the location where the layoffs would occur.
for more features.


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Aereo is riding high right now after a judge ruled the company is not causing enough damage to television networks to warrant a preliminary injunction. In case you haven’t heard of it before, Aereo is a company that takes over-the-air television signals and re-purposes them to be viewed on the internet from connected devices. The service is only active in New York today, but the plan is to greatly expand in 2013.
Aereo backer and billionaire Barry Diller told Bloomberg TV the company is going to ramp up its marketing and take on “most major markets” within a year and a half.
Aereo’s service costs only $12 a month which also includes a DVR feature. Up to 40 hours of programming can be recorded, and up to five devices can be tied to single account.


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Various credible sources and some of the industry leaks have revealed that the Apple’s new M2 chip is up to 20% faster than the M1 chip as far as multi-core performance is concerned. The M2 chip, that runs at almost 3.49 GHz compared to M1’s 3.2 GHz, has accumulated a single-core score of 1919, which is 12% quicker than the 1707 single-core earned by M1 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Also, the M2 scored a multi-core score of 8928, which is about 20% faster than the 7419 score of the M1 chip. The company has also claimed that the M2 chip is 18% faster than the M1 chip, which makes the industry leaks right in line with claims made by Apple.
As far as the metal benchmark is concerned, the M2 chip has scored 30627, which is an extremely notable improvement over the 21001 scored by the M1 chip. It is important to mention that the M2 chip offers up to a 10-core GPU against the 8-core maximum GPU of M1.
The new 2022 MacBook Air is using the M2 chip and it is also being used in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. There is no official word regarding the launch date of the Apple MacBook Air, however; the new MacBook Pro is going to be available for pre-order from 17 June, 2022.


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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: people in this industry like to wallow.
A brief glance at the FTAdviser comment boards on any given week will reveal countless comments from adviser readers bemoaning that the Retail Distribution Review will be the straw that breaks the metaphorical camel’s back.
It is not just advisers, the trade media too typically tends towards eschatological headlines that tap into the sector’s above-described morbidity.
Some of these stories are obviously important and rooted in irrefutable evidence; many are little more than an easy way to boost readership by feeding a seemingly masochistic audience what previous experience shows they will be unable to refuse to consume.
I completely agree with the concern surrounding a paucity of fresh blood - and the nebulous ‘advice gap’ is at the very least a stain on the reputation of a regulator that had clearly not even researched the potential consequences of its five-years-in-the-making rule changes for the consumers it is charged with protecting.
But to argue, as many continue to do, that there is no economically viable future for advisers in the post-RDR world, or that to be viable all businesses will be forced into an internecine battle for a modest pool of high net worth clients, is simply not borne out by the evidence we have.
In fact, of the firms that are either listed or of a sufficient size that their business performance is keenly watched, results reported so far in 2013 have been almost exclusively positive.
Just this week AFH Financial, a listed IFA firm that has been aggressively buying up businesses in the past couple of years, announced that like-for-like revenues and recurring income increased by 55 per cent and 58 per cent respectively for the six months ended 30 April 2013. Like-for-like profit before tax was up 90 per cent to £834,591.
On the same morning St James’s Place - by no means the favourite firm of many advisers, but nonetheless an intermediary operating in the post-RDR world - announced that operating profits increased 39 per cent in the first six months of this year, while pre-tax profits doubled year on year to £444.6m.
In the middle of last month, another listed IFA, Frenkel Topping, which has a unique business model that focuses on clients who have received personal injury settlements, posted an increase in profit before tax of 22 per cent to £578,478 in the six months to the end of June.
In June, I-Financial Services Group, the listed financial services group that owns Hertfordshire IFA Lyndhurst Financial Management, said it had returned to profit during the first quarter after RDR implementation and was “confident of maintaining for the rest of the year”.


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INNOVATION, sustainability and digitisation are all set to feature high on the agenda at this year’s Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print event.
Over 300 exhibitors will attend the annual event, which aims to bring buyers and suppliers together under one roof and provide visitors with a sneak peak into the future by highlighting the innovative developments which are likely to feature prominently in the sector’s future.
James Drake-Brockman, divisional director of Easyfairs’ packaging portfolio, told Packaging Scotland that, in his opinion, this event is unique within the UK in that brings all of the packaging supply chain together under one roof.
“I don’t think there’s another event that does what we do,” he explained. “We have the greatest representation from a supply point of view and I would say the strongest attendance from the major packaging creators and buyers in the market. You’ve got events for print; you’ve got events for machinery; but you don’t really have anything that does what we do, which is provide something for every part of that packaging buying chain.
“This is a chance for the packaging community to come together at the NEC to network, do business, collaborate, learn.
“We’ve seen a lot of big organisations sending upwards of 20 people to the event, where they’ve all got their little bit that’s relevant to them and they can come back together to discuss ideas. For us it’s really good because we’re touching different parts of the packaging decision making process within these big organisations and also giving those people responsible for it the opportunity to go away, be inspired, come back together and talk about how that can them be implemented within their company. That’s what we’re aiming for.
“We’ve got more of a focus on innovation this year than we’ve had in the past. We’re looking at working with some really exciting partners, which will be announced very soon to try and bring some of the more innovative developments that are relevant to the packaging industry; new materials, new functionalities or technology. We’ve produced a new innovation stage as well, purely focused on innovations from within and outside of the packaging community that will have an impact on packaging over the coming years.”
The Innovation Stage is one of five seminar venues spread across the event. The Keynote Stage will feature over 20 hours of content split into industry-specific forums. Featured sectors include cosmetics, food, drink, retail and ecommerce. There will also be the Ecopack Theatre, which focuses on sustainability, the Label&Print Stage, which examines the print side of things, and the Packaging News Stage.
James is firmly of the opinion that trade events like this one have an important role to play and serve a number of purposes.
“Ultimately we’re about bringing buyers and sellers together,” he said. “We (provide an) audience of people who are responsible for purchasing packaging and related products and services around that, and we get them in a room with people who have new, different, innovative products for them. It’s also a great opportunity to catch up with current suppliers as well, so it ticks both boxes. But I think what’s really crucial is it’s about bringing a community together. A lot of the conversations we have with people are that it’s really nice to catch up with old colleagues or industry friends, and meet new people who share similar passions. People are so passionate about packaging within the industry. They love coming together and making friends – and we focus on encouraging that a lot through networking drinks and having lots of networking opportunities within the show as well.”
James added that a further aim is to help people be better at their jobs. “Our mantra at Easyfairs is ‘visit the future’ with the idea being that wben you come to one of our events, you’ve got a glimpse into whatever the future is of your working environment. We’ll be doing our best to showcase some of the really key trends that are happening and also bring out some innovative sessions from companies that are forging a way so people can understand how others have done it through case studies. “
In terms of issues, sustainability and the circular economy are set to feature prominently. James revealed they are in conversations to bring some “really interesting people to that discussion to try and move it forward and uncover potential real solutions to the problems we have, but also to try and address it in a sensible way”.
“We will look at it from an objective and useful point of view for the industry,” he added. “Print is also a thing we’ll be looking at and the digital side of things there – things like personalisation and how that affects consumer engagement.”
James said the event experienced some “very rapid growth” and has become a feature in the events diary. “We’re seeing good growth again this year,” he added. “It’s a show that has become a really important part of the packaging annual calendar. This really does provide a home for the UK community and is very much focused on that.
“I’m already thinking about 2019. We have to think long-term about what we’re trying to do as an event. There’s a lot of organisation. I’ve got a fantastic team that all work tirelessly on this, and our London event and also our new event we’ve launched in New York. It’s an awful lot of work; I lose more hair every year and get less sleep. It’s a bit like having a child I suppose!”
Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print will take place at Birmingham’s NEC on 28 February & 1 March 2018.


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updated 09:40 am EST, Mon January 4, 2010
Figure would set Apple sales record
Apple is estimated to have sold 3.3 million Macs during its most recent fiscal quarter, according to Broadpoint.AmTech analyst Brian Marshall. Should the figure prove correct, it will break an all-time sales record of 3.05 million Macs, set during the previous quarter. It will also mark a growth of 31 percent year-over-year, up from 2.3 million.
The company has not seen similar levels of growth since 2008, which produced leaps ranging from 21 to 51 percent. Marshall also suggests that the recent quarter should mark another surge in Apple's desktop sales, which could be up 19 percent year-over-year at 865,000 units. Most growth in recent quarters has been attributed to MacBooks.
Official results should be released sometime in the second half of January, in tandem with a results call. Apple is like to continue outpacing industry average growth for 20 out of the last 21 quarters, the one blemish being the first quarter of 2009, when the full impact of economic recession hit the public. Gartner research estimates suggest that worldwide computer sales grew by just 2.3 percent last year.


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Two of Australia’s largest brewers did not pay corporate tax in 2015-16, an Australian Tax Office report says.
The Megabrew transaction has passed its final hurdle, with shareholders of both Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller giving it their approval.
Carlton & United Breweries CEO Ari Mervis will end his 27-year stint with SABMiller when AB InBev takes control on October 10.
Carlton & United Breweries achieved strong earnings growth for the first quarter ended June 30, despite the continuing decline of its mainstream brands.
There was never going to be any fundamental issue with AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller in the Australian market, competition lawyer John Kettle reaffirmed as the ACCC gave its blessing to the beer merger.
There will be no obstacles in the Australian market to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed acquisition of SABMiller, Australia’s competition watchdog has confirmed.
Australia’s competition watchdog has for the second time delayed its decision on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed takeover of SABMiller.
Carlton & United Breweries will reclaim its place as Australia’s number one brewer in the wake of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s takeover of SABMiller, acknowledges Lion Beer Wine & Spirits managing director James Brindley.
As anticipated, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced an investigation into the local impacts of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed takeover of SABMiller.
Distribution of the Miller beers could be up for grabs in Australia if AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller proceeds as expected.


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PETALING JAYA: More students are making use of their holidays in creative and productive ways.
In conjunction with Christmas, Evangeline Li Si Ern, 16, said she would be allocating some time to help the needy.
Together with her church members comprising three adults and seven students, they will be visiting several low-cost apartments.
They plan to knock on doors and ask residents if they are in need of any simple household items such as brooms, slippers and brushes.
“We will then go to the nearest supermarket to get these items and present to them as Christmas gifts, ” she said.
The money to purchase the items was collected from church members, she said.
Zahra Mohamad Zaki, 15, said she was spending her school holidays doing art commissions.
She posts her artworks on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, and hopes to get requests to create art pieces from interested users.
As an aspiring artist, she said it would be nice to be able to earn some money from her hobby.
“I don’t have much time to draw on schooldays and the most I can do is to doodle on paper, ” she said.
She said school holidays allowed her to really focus on her digital drawing as it was very time-
Veenaa Logenthiran, 18, said she spent her school holidays learning how to cook in India.
She flew all the way there to learn from her mother’s friend.
While in India, she spent three weeks learning to cook traditional and authentic Indian dishes.
“Indian cuisine is unique. A single recipe can be used to make many different dishes by just substituting the meat used.
“Altering the ingredients can also result in an entirely different dish, ” she said.
Veena said her specialty was butter chicken as she liked the rich taste and creamy texture, as well as the aroma from the spices.
“I’m planning to cook for my family and share the taste of authentic Indian cuisine with them, ” she said.


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Icelandair Cargo implements performance monitoring software
25 / 05 / 2018
Icelandair Cargo has implemented CHAMP’s Traxon Quality software solution that measures cargo performance.
The software allows airlines to track shipments across the whole supply chain in real time with a dashboard that can be customised. It also offers KPIs that can measure customers satisfaction.
“CHAMP appreciates the partnership with Icelandair Cargo and is delighted to provide our customer with more solutions and services to support its continuous development,” said Nicholas Xenocostas, vice president, global sales and marketing at CHAMP Cargosystems.
“Data and performance improvement is, after all, one of our key missions – enabling more airlines and forwarders to achieve this is a win for us and the industry.”
“Icelandair Cargo is excited to be the first to use Traxon Quality,” added Bertel Ólafsson, IT manager at Icelandair Cargo. “The platform will give us crucial insights to drive the process improvements for many years to come.”


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The spectre of inflation in America and how it may affect Singapore
Martin Feldstein, one of Obama’s chief economic advisors warns of the risks of inflation in America given the unprecedented actions by the Fed Reserve to sharply increase money supply:
But now the large US fiscal deficits are being accompanied by rapid increases in the money supply and by even more ominous increases in commercial bank reserves that could later be converted into faster money growth. The broad money supply (M2) is already increasing at an annual rate of nearly 15 per cent. The excess reserves of the banking system have ballooned from less than $3bn a year ago to more than $700bn (€536bn, £474bn) now.
The money supply consists largely of government-insured bank deposits that households and businesses are holding because of a concern about the liquidity and safety of other forms of investment. But this could change when conditions improve, turning these money balances into sources of inflation.
The Fed is also creating a massive increase in liquidity by its policy of supplying credit directly to private borrowers. Although these credit transactions do not add to the measured fiscal deficit, the unprecedented Fed purchases of more than $1,000bn of private securities have led to the enormous $700bn increase in the excess reserves of the commercial banks. The banks now hold these as interest-bearing deposits at the Fed. But when the economy begins to recover, these reserves can be converted into new loans and faster money growth.
The deep recession means that there is no immediate risk of inflation. The aggregate demand for labour and goods and services is much less than the potential supply. But when the economy begins to recover, the Fed will have to reduce the excessive stock of money and, more critically, prevent the large volume of excess reserves in the banks from causing an inflationary explosion of money and credit.
The concern of Singaporeans is of course how rising inflation in the US would impact the value of the Singapore dollar. As expected, MAS devalued the Singapore dollar earlier this month, citing it’s secret policy of the currency band. Well, it’s always been known that a strong Singapore dollar hurts exports, what’s more with China on the rise, effectively giving export-dependent Singapore a run for its money. But the key point to note is that though the contents of the basket of currencies MAS weighs the Singapore dollar against the international currency standards is kept secret, it isn’t too hard to guess that the bulk of it is probably US dollars. If and when the US dollar starts to weaken as inflation rises as Feldstein warned it might above, Singapore could end up importing inflation from the US when MAS devalues the dollar in response to US dollar depreciation.
What’s bad about this is that Singapore’s consumers may be caught in a whammy when the US dollar depreciates. MAS devalues the Sing dollar in response, but China follows suit only modestly. This has the effect of raising prices here at home since most of our goods are imported from China. Indeed, China’s earlier call this month for a new internatioal reserve currency may be a step towards reducing the rising industrial giant’s dependence on the US. I’m sure most Singaporeans don’t need to be reminded that they’ve had enough of record inflation along with three straight quarters of economic contraction in 2008.